United stakes

Syrian task force a humanitarian responsibility

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth in a series of articles detailing the efforts and involvement of two Lakeside High School graduates in the Syrian Emergency Task Force, which advocates for the safety and well-being of Syrian civilians during the country’s ongoing civil war.

The Syrian Emergency Task Force has taken up a cause in support of foreign civilians, but it is a wholly American endeavor for the locals involved.

The organization was founded in 2012 by Mouaz Moustafa with interested activists in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Moustafa was born a Palestinian refugee in Syria, but moved to America as a child and graduated from Lakeside High School and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway before he began his professional career in D.C. He is the son of Mona and Kamal Moustafa.

“I traveled a lot and I always felt home when I was traveling,” Moustafa said. “I still do, but it was only in this country — and I think this is the

only country in the world where, regardless of your background, your religion, your ethnicity, even where you were born — that you can become fully American.

“Being American is not built on a nationality or a religion or an ethnic group. It is built on an idea that we are all equal. We have these rights ordained to us, like liberty, freedom, justice, democracy, equality under the law.”

Moustafa is half Syrian on his mother’s side, but he held a Palestinian refugee travel document. The family lived by modest means in illegal housing on the edge of Damascus, the capital city of Syria. He said people were nice to him in Syria, but they also told him he would eventually have to return “home” to Palestine.

His career began in the offices of former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder and U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln before the Arab Spring in 2010-2011 gave birth to political uprisings throughout north Africa and the Middle East. He speaks Arabic and his experience in D.C. was seen as an asset for potential influence with policymakers.

A Christian Egyptian lawyer and a Muslim Egyptian lawyer reached out to Moustafa in D.C. for political advocacy in favor of protesters in Egypt. Libyan Americans later asked him to advocate on behalf of Libya’s protesters and his fellow SETF founders approached him to act on behalf of civilians in Syria. The organization has worked for the past five years to expose the war crimes committed by President Bashar al-Assad against his own people and to aid civilians by various means.

About 480,000 Syrians are estimated to have died during the civil war, which began in March 2011. At least 4-6 million refugees have fled to other countries, while an estimated 11 million more remain permanently displaced inside the country. Amnesty International estimated almost 18,000 have died in Syrian prisons during the conflict and as many as 300,000 remain in custody as political prisoners.

Moustafa said he remains against total intervention by the U.S. military.

“I don’t think our men and women should go to fight a foreign war,” Moustafa said. “I think it is important to focus on our interests just like any country has the right to.”

Moustafa said he feels wholeheartedly American despite his work advocating for the people of his birth nation.

“I say ‘we’ and ‘they’ because I am having to stand in and represent the people in Syria, the rebels,” Moustafa said. “My heart is with them in every way because what they are fighting for is the same idea this country is built upon.”

“I think Mouaz is like the ultimate American and totally believes in America so much,” said Natalie Larrison, who joined the SETF more than a year ago. “The Syrian people really wanted too also.”

Larrison also graduated from Lakeside and UCA. She is the daughter of Chuck and Laura Larrison.

Moustafa said her work with the SETF plays a direct role in improving relations with the Syrian people. Larrison leads the SETF’s coordination of support for a school in the Idlib Governorate province in northwestern Syria, as well as a new Letters of Hope program, in which Americans can write letters of support to be delivered directly to students at the school.

Former President Barack Obama claimed the U.S. would intervene in the conflict if Assad’s regime committed certain acts. Many believed a chemical attack against civilians in August 2013 would spark American intervention, but the U.S. instead negotiated for Syria to dispose of its sarin gas cache. The conflict escalated and Russia, Assad’s ally, stepped in as the proactive superpower.

“They watch congressional hearings more than Americans do,” Moustafa said of the Syrian people. “I guarantee it. Then it developed into, ‘Why do they hate us so much?’ Refugee became synonymous with terrorist.”

The task force works to connect Americans directly with Syrians affected by the conflict. Moustafa said the hope is for the American people to take action after they learn about the war and Syrian civilians.

“For many reasons, Mouaz has been the one who is trying to prove that America will do something,” Larrison said. “Don’t lose that faith, because I think that is his strength.”

Moustafa said he enjoys studying American history and he likened the rebellion by Syrians against Assad to the American Revolution. He said he is proud of the Syrian people for fighting for the same ideals of democracy, freedom and liberty.

“The people that stood up against ISIS, against extremists, against warlords and against the regime could be like the George Washingtons and the Thomas Jeffersons,” Moustafa said.

His parents moved to Little Rock when he was in college and now reside outside of D.C. He said he still rarely sees them, but he enjoys them being closer and more accessible near the country’s capital, where he still conducts much of his business.

“I’m American; that’s my identity,” Moustafa said. “If Syria was to be freed tomorrow and they told me to come home and be president, I would tell them no. I love this country.”